Published: Friday, July 19, 2013 at 05:21 PM.

CHARLOTTE – The narrative that’s been spun by most regional and national NBA fans is that former Charlotte owner Bob Johnson is to blame for this region’s failure to embrace the Bobcats name.

Certainly, Johnson isn’t blameless. But someone else allowed the popular “Hornets” name to leave town after the 2001-02 season.

That’s probably why outgoing NBA commissioner David Stern seemed so relieved during Thursday’s news conference announcing the name would be returning to Charlotte for the 2014-15 season.

It’s because Stern was the leader of a league that foolishly allowed a fertile NBA market to be contaminated by former Hornets owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge.

Shinn, who sold the Hornets to current owner Tom Benson in the spring of 2012, has since admitted his mistakes and the role he played – or didn’t play – in the messy divorce between the region, city and the Hornets that led him to move the team to New Orleans following the 2001-02 season.

Of course, if Stern truly controlled the NBA as many have speculated over the years, he should’ve found a way to keep Charlotte and Shinn’s ownership group happy.

In truth, Stern made matters worse through inactivity and, according to insiders, recommending Wooldridge to Shinn as a financial partner.

CHARLOTTE – The narrative that’s been spun by most regional and national NBA fans is that former Charlotte owner Bob Johnson is to blame for this region’s failure to embrace the Bobcats name.

Certainly, Johnson isn’t blameless. But someone else allowed the popular “Hornets” name to leave town after the 2001-02 season.

That’s probably why outgoing NBA commissioner David Stern seemed so relieved during Thursday’s news conference announcing the name would be returning to Charlotte for the 2014-15 season.

It’s because Stern was the leader of a league that foolishly allowed a fertile NBA market to be contaminated by former Hornets owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge.

Shinn, who sold the Hornets to current owner Tom Benson in the spring of 2012, has since admitted his mistakes and the role he played – or didn’t play – in the messy divorce between the region, city and the Hornets that led him to move the team to New Orleans following the 2001-02 season.

Of course, if Stern truly controlled the NBA as many have speculated over the years, he should’ve found a way to keep Charlotte and Shinn’s ownership group happy.

In truth, Stern made matters worse through inactivity and, according to insiders, recommending Wooldridge to Shinn as a financial partner.

Wooldridge is remembered by local fans as the part-owner who never seemed to negotiate in good faith with city officials to the point that many of them felt he simply wanted to move regardless of whatever deal could’ve or would’ve been made.

There’s no doubt city leaders played a role in the battle lines being drawn. And Shinn inability to take a lead role in the negotiations that broke off but eventually led to the building of the current Time Warner Cable Arena was another factor. (Shinn’s very public legal troubles – he was later cleared in a sexual misconduct trial – led to Wooldridge heading up virtually all negotiations with city officials.)

But since Stern knew that Johnson and the Steve Belkin group that included the legendary Larry Bird were eager to buy a NBA team, it’s hard to believe Stern couldn’t have found a way to keep all sides happy.

You don’t have to have a long memory to recall how NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue allowed the Cleveland franchise to move to Baltimore in 1995 but allowed the “Browns” name to stay with that city once it returned via expansion four years later.

Johnson quickly ran into troubles in Charlotte, many of them immediately when he vainly chose “Bobcats” as the nickname for the new Charlotte franchise.

But as badly as Johnson may or may not have run the franchise before selling his majority stake in ownership to Michael Jordan in March 2010, he inherited a poisoned market.

Perhaps Stern knew that was the case.

Of course, if he didn’t, he should’ve known since he surprisingly granted the city an expansion franchise for the 1988-89 season when one national columnist infamously stated the only new franchise Charlotte would get would be a McDonald’s.

In any event, few longtime NBA fans will be rooting for the “Hornets” to bring stability back to Charlotte more than Stern – even after he leaves his job as NBA commissioner after 30 seasons next winter.

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22